New ACT Opposition Leader Mark Parton has a big responsibility. Photos: Ian Bushnell.
Mark Parton has finally stepped up to lead the ragtag bunch known as the Canberra Liberals.
A year after the seventh consecutive election loss and a fragile Leanne Castley leadership, undone by her own miscalculation and a couple of fractious party room members, particularly her predecessor Elizabeth Lee, the popular and moderate Mr Parton is now the great unifier.
Bedevilled by factional warfare in the branches and personality differences in the party room, the Liberals have not been seen as a credible force for years.
The running joke in the Assembly is that the left-wing Greens perform more like an opposition than the Liberals.
Yet, the unopposed elevation of Mr Parton is also the latest sign that the party wants to get its act together.
The branches under president and just-endorsed Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell seem becalmed, and the party’s choice of a candidate with real appeal means it is serious.
The early preselection timing is also designed to give the successful businessman enough time to make a positive impression on voters.
If the narrative is to be believed, the self-sacrifice of Ms Castley and her deputy, right-wing warrior Jeremy Hanson, put the good of the party first to bring about a resolution of its internal crisis.
In such a small party room, Mr Parton became the obvious and only choice to be leader, something many had been saying for years, given his vote-gathering prowess in Brindabella, broad appeal and communication skills.
Parton’s indifference for the top job was the greatest impediment to him taking it sooner.
The former radio jock has been the party’s most effective media performer, both in person and across social media, including his now-famous TikTok videos.
He is well known for his sense of humour, an admirable quality for a politician, although he will have to know when to curtail his jokey side to be taken seriously.
As Opposition Leader, Mr Parton also needs to take a deeper dive to be more across the details than before, especially against Chief Minister Andrew Barr, the only one to outpoll him last year, and who he may well face in 2028, despite talk of the Chief Minister moving on.
If not, he may fancy his chances against the now tarnished Chris Steel, but the experienced Rachel Stephen-Smith, also a detail person, would prove a more difficult opponent.
Deputy Opposition Leader Deborah Morris is a surprise deputy.
Mr Parton will also need to drive policy development, something the party has been short on for a long time, as well as attack the government on its multiple vulnerabilities.
He should also play a role in recruiting members, cultivating solid candidates and securing donors.
The question is, can he hold his party room together, or in his words, can the party leave its “shit” behind?
The reality is the party has no choice if it wants to stand a chance in 2028.
Yet the surprise elevation of first-term MLA and right-winger Deborah Morris as deputy also shows the tightrope Mr Parton will walk trying to present a moderate face to an avowedly progressive electorate.
But while Mr Parton talked in generalities in his first press conference, Ms Morris showed her pragmatism by zeroing in on housing, the budget and personal safety, otherwise known as crime, as key issues.
No culture wars there.
Asked if voters will face yet another light-rail election, Mr Parton would not say, but with the cost of living and Labor’s budget woes, the Liberals will believe that they have a chance to convince the electorate that the bill for Stage 2B to Woden is too high.
The 2024 results show that, despite everything, the Liberal vote is not far behind Labor. If Mr Parton’s personal Brindabella vote could be translated to other electorates, that may be enough to put the Liberals into a position from which they could negotiate support from independents, or even the Greens.
Labor will continue to play up the Liberal divisions, but it now faces an Opposition Leader with real cut-through who has a lot of ammunition to play with.
Even a progressive electorate like the ACT wearies of soaring budget deficits, declining services and botched programs. Labor will want the budget to be on the mend and to give voters something to show for the money it is spending, such as light rail 2A, the Lyric Theatre and a new northside hospital.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the federal party. Both Mr Parton and Mr Tyrrell will have to deal with the fallout from its abandonment of net zero emissions by 2050.
Like light rail, the federal party will try to convince voters that net zero comes at too great a cost, a big ask in the cities where climate action is well supported and the election will be won and lost.
They also won’t want any repeat of the unhelpful attacks on the public service.
That election will be held before the ACT poll. The axiom is that local issues decide local elections, but being in Canberra, the 2028 federal election cannot help but have implications.
For Mr Parton, he carries the responsibility of injecting life into the ACT’s democracy and giving voters a viable alternative to a government that has been in power for 24 years.
That’s no laughing matter.
